Chimera
by Faeline
Summary: A semi Sarah/Jareth songfic. "Someone had once told her that forever was not so long..."


Author's Notes:   
Disclaimer: Labyrinth and it's character's are not mine, they belong to Jim   
Henson and Co. "I Dreamed a Dream" is not mine, alas, it is from the musical   
Les Miserables with the lyrics by Herbert Kretzmer. (Based on the novel by   
Victor Hugo, of course.) The lyrics have not been changed other than the   
reprisal of a few lines. I own only one character in this tale, and he is the   
man without a name (and not much of a personality...)  
  
"Chimera"  
By ~Faeline~  
************************  
  
~~There was a time when men were kind  
When their voices were soft and their words inviting  
There was a time when love was blind  
And the world was a song  
And the song was exciting~~  
  
  
~~There was a time and then it all went wrong...~~  
  
  
Sarah was young when she met him; barely into college. A shimmering youth,   
newly opened to adulthood, ready to take on the world and its refuse in order   
to find her dreams.   
  
She saw him for the first time seated in the auditorium, beneath the shadows   
of the bright lights that lit the stage, settled into the first row near the   
aisle. He had come to the college production for a break in the monotony of   
reality. As the cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream took their bows to an   
entire audience on foot, she noted his attentions had one focal point, and it   
was her.  
  
He was still there long after the crowd had flooded the aisles and swept   
through the foyer, heading to their respective cars, and buses and dorm   
rooms. He made his way backstage seeking the elusive Faery Queen, that he   
might pay homage to her.  
  
She blushed at his praise and smiled when he asked her to accompany him on a   
walk. She liked the dignified way in which he held himself. She admired the   
soft blackness of his hair and the way it curled slightly around the collar   
of his dress shirt. His eyes were electric, magnetic, green as Poseidon's   
kingdom. They called to her mind images of eyes just as entrancing, though   
not so magnificent in their coloring; one blue and one a stormy sea; soulful,   
hurting and feral as any wild cat.  
  
They spent the evening together; walking under the emaciated limbs of   
trembling trees, through piles of Technicolor foliage. They warmed their   
hands over steaming espressos and talked passionately about future plans and   
current ventures over a shared dessert in a small cafe.   
  
Night dwindled. Fog rose in eddies from the dew on the grass, and the black   
glassy lakes spotted with sleeping fowl, in anticipation of the coming dawn.   
The night birds ceased their song and took to their day time resting places,   
while the animals of the sun and warmth slowly journeyed back from the   
hypnotic abyss of sleep.  
  
They retired to his small flat and spent the remaining hours of darkness   
among cool sheets, warm tangled limbs and silken whispers. They drifted into   
their own dream state as dawn slithered over the horizon and broke the   
shadows, sending them rushing to the safety of their daytime retreats.  
  
The remaining months of the year they spent content in each others company;   
growing and evolving in their relationship. When he said that he loved her,   
and asked the question, her response was immediate and positive. They played   
the role of the ultimately devoted couple.  
  
They were wed in the late days of spring. When the rains had slackened and   
the flowers and grasses grew in abundance; perfuming the air with their   
multicolored scents. On a day of sweet breezes and light they pledged to   
love one another forever.   
  
Someone had once told her that forever was not so long...  
  
* * *  
  
She left school soon after, following her new husband to the places his work   
would lead him. Her love for the stage didn't fade when she was pulled from   
the limelight, and she found workshops and classes in their new home.   
  
They played the role of the devoted couple.  
  
All went right as the spring rains that first year. On the anniversary of   
their first meeting he took her to the Theatre in the heart of the city to   
enjoy a professional rendition of Shakespeare's Midsummer play. On the   
anniversary of their wedding they dined well and walked beneath the budding   
branches of May. They pulled off the road on their way home, finding a thick   
shadowed grove brimming with the essence of cherry blossoms, and made love on   
the warm upholstery of the back seat.   
  
Change compliments the seasons. It comes inevitably when one is not aware.  
  
Their relationship grew so suddenly strange and apart, like ash and oak   
trees, twined together at the roots, growing toward opposite points of the   
globe as they reach for the sky. She lost sight of what she once was, what   
she once longed to be; overshadowed by what he wanted and needed her to be.   
His eyes lost their electric sheen, becoming dull as an old broken window   
glass. The magnetism that had attracted her from their first meeting was   
gone.   
  
Her dreams were fettered and dusty and she could swear to hearing the sound   
of *his* voice whispering with so much sadness.  
  
"Such a pity..."  
  
~~I dreamed a dream in time gone by  
When hope was high and life worth living  
I dreamed that love would never die  
I dreamed that God would be forgiving  
  
Then I was young and unafraid  
And dreams were made and used and wasted  
There was no ransom to be paid   
No song unsung  
No wine untasted.  
  
But the tigers come at night  
With their voices soft as thunder  
And they tear your hope apart  
And they turn your dream to shame...  
  
He slept a summer by my side  
He filled my days with endless wonder  
He took my childhood in his stride  
But he was gone when autumn came~~  
  
  
She longed to return to the sun-filled days of their beginnings. Longed for   
the impulsiveness, the companionable silences. She devoted her time to   
rekindling the flames.   
  
On their second wedding anniversary each had a surprise for the other.   
  
He was leaving, he said. She could keep the house. He was going to the   
city; to the woman in the office who'd stolen his heart from him. The   
candlelight on the celebratory table setting reflected the deep blue of her   
eyes, the glassy sheen of tears. He left the room to see to his impending   
trip, and she pressed her hand to the still flat expanse of her stomach and   
wept.  
  
She watched him get into his car the next morning. He didn't look back,   
didn't hesitate as the black vehicle sped over the curves and disappeared   
into the verdant blanket of trees. She stayed staring for some time until   
she thought she caught sight of the hypnotic eyes from her past in the glass.   
She saw her name fall from his lips, but when she turned no one was there.  
  
  
~~I had a dream that life would be  
So different from this hell I'm living  
So different now from what it seemed  
Now life has killed  
The dream I dreamed...~~  
  
  
She walked alone through the hazy cool days of autumn. The leaves had lost   
their brightness, the cold had sharpened its bite. Her belly swelled with   
life, made stronger by every beat of her heart.   
  
She lived in mediocrity.  
  
She supported herself in the world using her talents for organization and   
love of Theatre and literature to keep the large library she worked in   
running smoothly. She still went to her workshops and classes, lobbied for   
parts that no one else would take, and with a heavy heart watched the empty   
years spread out before her.   
  
* * *  
  
He came to her in the darkness, in her sleep, her night dreams. She told the   
illusion that she'd wanted the fairy tale; but been left with the smashed   
remains of the pumpkin. He looked at her sadly and shaking his head   
disappeared from her mind.   
  
"I could have shown you your dreams..."  
  
The fall rains started.   
  
She dreamed of him often, but never spoke his name. Each dream was   
different. In some he appeared almost solid, real enough to touch, though he   
never reached for her. In others he was but a mirror image, ectoplasmic and   
see-through. Then there were the dreams in which he didn't show himself, and   
all she heard were the velvety contours of his voice.  
  
Life was different with her nightly visitor. She no longer had the daydreams   
of her childhood, but she had her fantasies in the dark.   
  
She dreaded the day he might vanish from her life, as well.   
  
* * *  
  
On the night of the anniversary of her first meeting with her husband, the   
sky split open and let the rain fall without restraint. The thunder was   
vicious and the storm took out the power to the house. By the jagged   
crevices of lightning she lit candles around the rooms.  
  
She slipped into the gown he bought her when they were first married,   
relishing the soft feel of the satin against her skin, growing taught but not   
uncomfortably so on her abdomen. She huddled beneath the covers of her bed   
and watched as the rain pelted the glass and the wind rattled the windows   
until the song of the storm lulled her to sleep.  
  
She started slightly as a thunderhead crackled and the room was lit in the   
ghostly luminescence of the gale. She felt she was not alone. She surveyed   
the room and found a cluster of twilight that the stormlight did not   
penetrate. There were eyes in that darkness and they watched her as the   
shadows moved toward the bed.   
  
She took a breath as the figure reached her, unsure of what to do, when a   
shadow passed briefly over her eyes and mouth, calming her with a sense of   
warmth and familiarity.  
  
His face was hidden in black-blue hues, but she could feel the heat of a   
smile trembling along her highly sensitized flesh. She gasped when his hand   
detached itself from the shade and he caressed the bare skin of her arm. She   
didn't try to stop him when he pulled on the delicate tissue of the gown,   
ripping it open in the middle and brushing it away from her body.   
  
He trailed his fingers over the soft plump curves of her breasts, brushing   
the sensitive dusky nipples with his fingertips, sending ripples of white   
heat flowing through her chest and abdomen to pool around the muscles low in   
her belly. He let his palms flow over the swell of her stomach with a   
reverence she never knew he held.  
  
"You've denied me all these years, Sarah." he whispered. His voice was   
sweetly soft, thick and warm like molten chocolate. "But whose voice did you   
hear in your dreams? Hmm? Whose face did you gaze into as you made love in   
the shadows?"  
  
He smiled, and she shifted uneasily on the warmed sheets as he moved to kneel   
over her thighs and gaze directly into her face, bright with moonlight.  
  
"Tell me... Whose hands did you imagine on your body? Whose touch did you   
tremble beneath?"  
  
He slid long cool fingers down her flank, over the smooth junction her thigh   
and hip, to the downy recess between her legs. He cupped his hand against   
her sex, sensing the hot blood pulsating beneath the tender flesh as she   
arched, raised her hips and pressed against his palm.   
  
"Whose lips....did you wish to taste?"  
  
He leaned forward to brush his lips across hers in a chaste kiss, in utter   
defiance to the hand the held her and the fingertips that caressed her soft   
folds and slid inside to touch her core. His warm breath trailed down her   
throat and sternum, seeking the rise and fall of rounded flesh. He locked   
his warm mouth around her nipple, suckling with the intensity which the child   
in her womb would reprise in several months time.  
  
She squeezed her eyes shut on tears and tangled her fingers in the pale   
strands of his hair, holding him to her as she wept for old dead dreams and   
new chances, for love that spanned worlds.  
  
He pulled away with all of the restraint he could summon and took her lips   
once more, in the most intimate explorations of warm liquid velvet and hard   
porcelain. He breathed into her, filling her lungs with his essence, giving   
her child a breath of himself.  
  
She lost his kiss as he backed away, into the surrounding blackness, away   
from the light of the round moon. He looked down at her, a mixture of hope   
and joy, sadness and anticipation coming to rest in his queer eyes.   
  
"Not yet...but so close, my Sarah. So very close..."  
  
"Jareth. Don't..."  
  
"I'll be waiting for you Sarah. All you have to do...is call."  
  
His name fell from her lips as he merged with the shadows of the room,   
leaving much in the same way as he came. She held her arms out to pull the   
phantom image to her.  
  
~~And still I dream he'll come to me...~~  
  
* * *  
  
She woke with her arms still open for her love's embrace, and his name   
falling thick and syrupy from her tongue. Shiny streams of silver graced her   
cheeks, bleeding slowly from beneath her dark lashes.  
  
His scent clung to the bed; to the tangled sheets, to the soft pillow, to her   
gown...to her body. She pressed her hands to her face and inhaled deeply,   
holding her breath to keep him inside her. She let her gaze travel to the   
window and allowed herself to breathe again.   
  
The rain had slowed, and the clouds had broken in areas, allowing the   
moonlight to shine through; cold as crystal, it fell milky soft against the   
clear glass and made her skin appear luminous.  
  
She thought the light was momentarily obscured by wings, and then she heard   
the sounds of a bird in flight on the midnight wind.  
  
~~And still I dream he'll come to me...~~  
  
***************  
~Fin~  
*************** 


End file.
